


you're not where you belong (inside my arms)

by mischief7manager



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 00:47:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6401080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mischief7manager/pseuds/mischief7manager
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"They’re back at Whitestone, in the second day of the third week of the unknowable amount of time after dragons descended on Emon and turned everyone’s lives upside down, and Vex, for the life of her, cannot sleep."</p>
<p>Vex takes a late night walk, and gets some unexpected company.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you're not where you belong (inside my arms)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a tumblr anon who prompted "things you said under the stars and in the grass". Title from "Winter Song" by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson, which, let's be real, is a song about ladies who love ladies. Spoilers through episode 44.

They’re back at Whitestone, in the second day of the third week of the unknowable amount of time after dragons descended on Emon and turned everyone’s lives upside down, and Vex, for the life of her, cannot sleep. She’s freezing, even under numerous blankets, and every time she closes her eyes, she sees her brother’s tear-streaked face staring down at her. After nearly two hours of tossing and turning, she sighs and gets up.

Next to the bed, Trinket raises his head and whuffs groggily. He’s been attached to her at the hip all day, and she loves him for it, but there’s no reason for the both of them to be exhausted in the morning. She scratches behind his ears, murmuring “It’s alright, buddy. Go back to sleep.” Trinket whines, but he lays down again. Vex waits until she hears him snoring before grabbing her bow and quiver and slipping soundlessly out of the room.

She has no particular destination in mind, but it’s not surprising when she ends up in a clearing just past the treeline at the foot of the castle. Vex has always been most comfortable out of doors. Her brother could disappear in a crowd, down an alley, over a rooftop, but Vex preferred to lose herself in the woods and forests, until she was half-wild herself. Keyleth may be the one who talked to trees, but Vex had made her home among them. Or as much as a home as she was ever likely to have.

It’s a sign of how wrapped up in her thoughts Vex is that it takes her several minutes to realize she’s not alone. With speed born of years of practice, she nocks an arrow and aims at the intruder.

“Relax, darling,” Zahra says. “It’s only me.”

She stands about fifteen feet away from Vex, just visible in the shadows made by the trees. Her posture is casual, but Vex knows she’s keeping her hands at her sides so Vex can see she’s unarmed. It’s practically impossible for Zahra to appear nonthreatening, it’s just not in her nature, but the fact that she’s trying makes Vex’s throat tighten.

She lowers her bow. “What are you doing here, Zahra?”

The other woman smiles, white teeth flashing in the moonlight. “Following you, of course.” She walks to the middle of the clearing and flops down on her back, patting the grass beside her when Vex doesn’t move. “Sit,” she says, as though they were out for a garden stroll.

Vex sits, then slowly lies down next to Zahra, their shoulders barely brushing. “Really, though.”

Zahra sighs. “I saw you leave your room. Thought you might want some company.”

Vex rolls her head to look at her. This is the first one-on-one interaction she’s had with Zahra in a while. They’re both busy, Zahra with fortifying Whitestone and directing the information coming in, Vex with Vox Machina, and their paths don’t cross with any regularity. Even when they get a chance to see each other, it’s usually in the context of planning with the rest of the group.

Vex wouldn’t have thought she’d miss Zahra, given how little time they’d really spent together, but being with her now just highlights how strongly Vex had felt her absence.

They lay there in silence for a while, looking up at the stars. They’re clearer here than anywhere Vex can remember, pinpricks of light that make her feel so unimaginably small. Whatever else the Chroma Conclave does, she thinks, they can’t touch this.

She rolls her head to the side to express this to Zahra and finds the other woman looking at her. Vex is surprised by the depth of emotion in her face. “What is it?”

Zahra just looks at her for a long moment. “Do you still have nightmares?”

Vex blinks, looks away. “No,” she says, hoping the darkness is enough to cover the lie.

“I do.”

She looks back and meets Zahra’s steady gaze. “I dream about it all the time,” she says. “How still you were, how cold.”

“You do?” Vex’s voice is barely more than a whisper.

Zahra nods. “More, when you’re gone. When I can’t be with you.”

Vex feels around in the grass until she can take Zahra’s hand. “I’m here now,” she says.

Zahra smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “For now.”

Vex lets go of her hand, props herself up on an elbow to face Zahra more fully. “Hey,” she says, catching Zahra’s eye. “I’m alright. I’m fine.”

Zahra shakes her head. “I know. I know you are, and I know you’re brave and strong and capable, but-” She presses her lips together, swallows hard. “It happened so fast. One minute you were fine, and the next…” She takes a shaking breath. “You can’t promise me that it won’t happen again. I know you can’t, I wouldn’t ask you to, but that doesn’t make it any easier to stay here and watch you run off into the mouth of the dragon.”

Vex considers what she’s about to do for approximately two seconds, but. Well, it is, not exaggerating, pretty much the end of the world right now. If ever there was a time for impulse decisions, for saying “to hell with it” and damn the consequences, this would be it. With that thought, she puts a steadying hand on Zahra’s waist and leans in to kiss her.

She feels the gasp catch in Zahra’s throat. The moment stretches out, frozen, before Zahra surges up against her, and Vex can’t help but let out a cut off moan as Zahra’s fingers tangle in her hair to pull her closer. Zahra kisses Vex like she wants to drown in her, like without being pressed as close to her as possible she can’t be sure Vex is really here, really alive. Vex lets her hands run over Zahra’s horns, through her hair, down her face to cup the back of her neck. She kisses Zahra and Zahra kisses her back, and for long, glorious moments, there are no dragons, no war, nothing but the feel of Zahra’s lips against hers.

Finally, Vex pulls away, resting her forehead against Zahra’s and feeling their breath mingle in the night air. “I can’t promise it won’t happen again,” she says, hears Zahra inhale shakily. “I can’t promise that,” Vex repeats, pulling back so she can look Zahra in the eye, “but I promise you this.” She looks into Zahra’s eyes, glistening with unshed tears in the moonlight, as they were when she gave Vex the arrow of dragonslaying, when she gave Vex her heart, even if neither of them knew it until now. “I will always come back to you, Zahra Hydris.” Vex brushes a piece of white hair back from Zahra’s crimson forehead, tucks it behind one pointed ear. 

“I promise,” she says, and Zahra seals it with a kiss. 

**Author's Note:**

> Back to back fics of Vex smooching people. I have found my niche.


End file.
